Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse is a 2023 animated superhero film produced by Columbia Pictures and Sony Pictures Animation, and distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing. Directed by Joaquim Dos Santos, Kemp Powers, and Justin K. Thompson, it is the sequel to the Academy Award-winning Into the Spider-Verse (2018).
Shameik Moore returns as Miles Morales, who is pulled across the multiverse and introduced to the Spider-Society — an interdimensional task force of Spider-People led by the severe Miguel O'Hara/Spider-Man 2099 (Oscar Isaac). When Miles learns the Society operates on a rigid doctrine about which tragedies must be allowed to happen, he finds himself at odds with hundreds of versions of himself. Hailee Steinfeld returns as Gwen Stacy, with Jason Schwartzman voicing the villainous Spot.
Released on June 2, 2023, the film grossed over $690 million worldwide and drew rapturous reviews, with critics calling its animation among the most ambitious ever committed to a mainstream feature. It received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature and ends on a cliffhanger leading into Beyond the Spider-Verse.
Premiered on the Sundance Film Festival in 2012, Brian Klugman's and Lee Sternthal's The Words stars the pleiad of brilliant actors: Olivia Wilde, Zoe Saldana, Bradley Cooper, Dennis Quaid and Jeremy Irons. And even if you are not an admirer of Olivia and Zoe beauty nor fan of Bradley and Denis play, you will be definitely vanquished by outstanding screenplay of this movie. Although it was a directorial debut of Klugman and Sternthal, the film has gained mostly positive reviews from critics. Three stories nested on in one as Russian Matrioshka, each with separate narration and distinctive filming style fascinate you with an extraordinary tightly knitted plot about thievery of novel, a common plagiarism that encounters on every corner of the world. And as it often happens in a true life, this stealing never leads to a happier life. In The Words, a stagnating writer Rory Jansen, who has totally surrounded to a life of boredom without any glimpse of inspiration, suddenly finds a mysterious manuscript which turns to be an unbelievable exciting novel. Rory decides to publish this novel as his own thanks to the fact the manuscript was not signed by author. Years later, basking in the rays of glory, he meets The Old Man, who apparently turns to be the novel's creator. From that moment Rory gradually understands what price he has to pay for his false success.
Congratulations to all of those who liked Public Enemy with Johnny Depp, now they have more hard-boiled action thriller, Gangster Squad, unfortunately without Johnny. However the absence of Depp is easily compensated by a magnificent assembly of the cast, flawlessly selected by Ruben Fleischer who previously directed Zombieland and working on Zombieland 2 at the day of The Gangster Squad release. Returning to the abovementioned cast, the set of starring actors is really staggering: Ryan Gosling is portraying the main protagonist Sgt. Jerry Wooters who is serving in small (but very secret) LAPD squad chasing the major villain, Mickey Cohen, a mob ringleader. Cohen rules everything to the west from Chicago: prostitution, drug dealing, contract murders and bribes to politicians and officials. He controls everything and everyone. Sean Penn has professionally played the role of this uber-gangtser. Not worse managed with their roles gorgeous Emma Stone (as Grace Faraday) and Josh Brolin (as John O'Mara). The rest array of celebs involved in the film includes: Giovanni Ribisi (Ted, Contraband), Mireille Enos (The Killing, World War Z), Michael PeГ±a (Chavez, End of Watch), Nick Nolte (Luck, Warrior), Anthony Mackie (Vipaka, Real Steel) and Robert Patrick (Mafia, Safe House).
Is the phrase "dybbuk box" sounds familiar to you? You may be heard this unbelievable true story about the box being sold on eBay in 2001 to Mannis, a furniture restorer, who was warned about evil ghost, trapped inside the box, by ex-owner's granddaughter upon collection. He tried to return the box, but his offer met weird hysterical refusal. Lately, he learned lots about the box. It is originated from Lodz ghetto, where in 1938 a group of women managed to conduct the spiritual séance resulted in trapping a dybbuk in the box. Dybbuk is a Jewish-folklore evil spirit, who represents a soul of dead person, which has unfinished business in the world of living. To make things done, dybbuk infuses in the human live being, which it ultimately devours at the end. But let's go back to the story, the box and its owner survived the horrors of World War 2, and emigrated to USA, where she died in 2001 and the box were sold to abovementioned Mannis. Finally, he brings this box home and opens it. Inside, he finds strange artifacts: locks of blonde and brunette hairs, dried flower buds, a goblet with remains of wine and the statue with Hebrew word Shalom, engraved on it. Lately he sold the box due to the numerous nightmares he and his wife suffered after the box appeared in their lives. All the later owners of "dybbuk box" have reported about these nightmares and curses that accompanied their lives since they bought the box. This true story has laid in the storyline's foundation of The Possession, the movie released in 2012. The film was directed by Ole Bornedal, and screenplay was written by Juliet Snowden and Stiles White. Jeffrey Dean Morgan and Kyra Sedgwick are starring in the movie alongside with Grant Show, Madison Davenport and Natasha Calis. The last one portrays the main character, Em, who apparently becomes possessed by a dybbuk from the box.
At the first glance Hit and Run (2012) looks like Knockin' on Heaven's Door (1997) combined with Drive (2011), which is causing some negative expectations, taking into consideration the fact of how many times Knockin' on Heaven's Door was cloned, mostly in disastrous manner. But, it only at the first look, the second one will be stopped in state of total quandary by ill-fitting Bradley Cooper dreads. Bradley is hardly recognizable in Hit and Run, but it's still him playing the partner of former motorcyclist Charlie Bronson with a kind of "shady" past. The movie plot is based on quite untwisted screenplay written by Dax Shepard (who has directed film, too, and played the main protagonist), the story about mad driver who risked everything busting Witness Protection Program, for the sake of one single aim: to bring his beautiful fiancée to Los Angeles where she gets her dream job. If you are about to say something like: "what a stupid idea: to risk your life for girlfriend job?" you better just stop, take a deep breath and rethink it, maybe you'll do the same if gorgeous Kristen Bell was your girlfriend. Changed your mind, duh? Oh, yes, the Kristen and Bradley duo will definitely make you wishing to watch this movie. But let's go back to the plot: while driving to LA, the couple will encounter lots of awkward adventurous including: ex-gang mobs chasing Charlie, his partner seeking buried treasures from criminal past, and, of course cops sitting on their tails.
The first movie since In Line of Fire (1993) where Clint Eastwood plays not being a director of the film, Trouble with the Curve (2012) is a sport-drama film which story centers on aging basketball scout Gus (Clint Eastwood). There were the times when almost retired senior man was a legend of a baseball scouting. He recruited a world-famous Micky Mantle and Hank Aaron. However, those times are in the past, and a Gus's executives afraid that he stuck in dinosaur ages, saying "Nobody cares who scouted Hank Aaron anymore." So, it seems like Gus has to prove his professionalism at the dusk of his carrier. He has to start his last scouting voyage, which he decides to perform with his daughter Micky named after a baseball star he scouted many years ago (the role of Micky was performed by Amy Adams). During the tour they meet Johnny Flanagan (Justin Timberlake), a rival scout, which was scouted by Gus some time ago, and who has an eye on Micky (and that is Gus couldn't accept). Indeed, Gus and Johnny are good friends, and Micky couldn't stay between them. There is something more about Gus scouting trip – he has the eyesight problems making him impossible to successfully judge whether this or that player is promising or no. This is the work for Micky eyes, and this is a strange symbiosis of aging professional scout and his adoring daughter, who used to love baseball and now hates it seeing the treat to his father health. The script of Trouble with the Curve has come a long way to hit the screens (almost 15 years) which may indicate its was not good enough; but not in this case. When you are watching Clint Eastwood films one thing is sure, Clint always delivers.
How much do you know about Judd Apatow? The author of Knocked Up and The 40 Year Old Virgin he seems to be a little bit disquieted about the age of 40. This is proved once again by his new movie This Is 40 which he directs and writes the screenplay for. Actually, he is 45 years old and the crisis of 40s is way behind. Nevertheless, Judd energetically exploits the topic of mid-age slump, that eventually helps him to give a perfect launch for Hollywood career of his children. Yes, the juvenile Maude and Iris (you know these annoying toddlers from Knocked Up and Funny People) are back again in This Is 40 as Sadie and Charlotte, the children of being mid-age crisis Pete and Debbie. Pete is portrayed by Paul Rudd, who could be distinguished as George in Wanderlust and Ned Rochlin in Our Idiot Brother. The role of Debbie went to resilient cutie Leslie Mann, a well-know American actress born in 1972. Just remember her Jamie Lockwood in The Change-Up and Debbie in I Love You Phillip Morris. And of course, she played in all the latest Apatow's movies which we have enlisted above as Paul did, too. But that's OK, a little bit of conservatism is not a problem when you are filming three movies in row, all about mid-age crisis with the same actors starring and your kids playing kids. Keep calm and carry on, Judd.
Are the phrases "Canadian Caper" and "Iranian Hostage Crises" sound familiar to you? If no, there is short excursion into the history. In 1979 the Iranian revolution escalates at new level. Angry crowds storm the embassies of the western countries in Tehran. Sixty six Americans were caught as hostages and were held for more than 400 days. However six US Diplomats managed to escape the fate of "victims of terrorism and anarchy" as per words of President Carter. Those lucky ones managed to find a shelter in Canada Ambassador's home. Realizing, that finding and killing all of them is only a question of time, CIA requests Antonio J. Mendez to design and implement an unbelievable rescue plan to bring those six Diplomats back home. The years after Antonio J. Mendez, a former CIA technical operations officer, writes a book lifting a curtain off this covert operation. And 33 years later after the "Iranian Hostage Crises" Ben Affleck releases his own movie, Argo, which he direct, co-produce (alongside with George Clooney) and where he plays the leading role, CIA Special Agent, Tony Mendez. As we can see, Ben hasn't look far for searching the appropriate actor for the main protagonist role, choosing himself for playing most toughest guy. Nevertheless, the other cast members were selected brilliantly: Bryan Cranston (Rock of Ages, Red Tails), John Goodman (Red State, The Artis and, funny fact, Sullivan Truck from Cars) and Taylor Schilling (The Lucky One, Mercy).
Have you ever wondered what would happen if you travel back in time and kill your grandmother before she will give you the birth? Right, you will never be born. That means you will never travel back in time and never will kill you grandmother. That's called "Time Paradox" or "Grandfather Paradox". There are lots of theories explicating why the paradox can be avoided. By the way there is quite exotic one: "Can-Not Because Has-Not" that presumes that no one has invented the time machine in the future, because if it'll happen we have had already knew this due to existence of arriving time travelers from the future. But how it is connected with Looper, the movie filmed by Rian Johnson in 2012? The answer is: very straight. In not-so-near future, in the year 2042, a mob hitman makes money by successfully assassinating human targets arriving from more distant future. Everything goes smoothly before he receives the new target: himself arriving from 2072… Now you understand why we had to begin with "Time Paradox". However, such a twisted storyline is only one crucial driving force of Looper. The brilliant cast is the second. A mob killer, Joe, is portrayed by two actors, and each of them is a big name in Hollywood scoreboard. The younger version of Joe is represented by Joseph Gordon-Levitt while the older one is played by Bruce Willis. If such a star cast, picturing one only character is not enough for you, we are glad to let you know about other names: Emily Blunt (The Adjustment Bureau, Young Victoria) Piper Perabo (Covert Affairs , Ashes, Carriers ) and Paul Dano (Being Flynn, Cowboys & Aliens). And after all of that, have any doubts if this film worth your time?
The "shady" action of Lawless is unfolding in times of Great Depression which covered America in in the 1930s. The Prohibition Law and followed mass bootlegging and rum-running led to organized crime wide spreading across the USA. This "dark times" of twenty century were laid down in the movie storyline by the writers Nick Cave (screenplay), Matt Bondurant (novel) and mastermind Megan Ellison (daughter of Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison's) who shepherded this project. For those who like watching movies about the gangs rending the "society of law abiding citizens" this film would be a great choice, mostly because of perfectly selected cast. You should agree, not every day you see Tom Hardy, Gary Oldman and Shia LaBeouf all playing the gangsters and Guy Pearce as Special Agent. Jessica Chastain, Mia Wasikowska, Dane DeHaan, Jason Clarke and Noah Taylor are continuing the star cast of the movie. But the great choice of actors is not crucial strength of Lawless, the thrilling dramatic scenes and scale of the "just unfolding" war between gangs and authorities will keep you engaged all the 135 minutes.
Written by Vanessa Taylor and directed by David Frankel (Devil Wears Prada), sweet and relaxing Hope Springs depicts the middle-aged couple trying to reignite their descending relationships. The wife, Kay is played by still beautiful and unparalleled Meryl Streep (just remember her remarkable leading role in The Iron Lady). Along with her husband, Arnold, portrayed by Tommy Lee Jones, she is attending the intense counseling courses specially designated to help "a long-time-ago" married couples to find some warm feelings to each other. The guru of sessions which are organized in the gorgeous seaside town of Great Hope Springs, Dr. Bernie Feld, undertaking his best efforts to persuade Kay and Arnold Soames to revise their relationships both in everyday life and in sex; to rise the libido; to find the resources in each other to delight and love. In this search of happy live, the couple make some fateful decision, that casts the doubt on how is really in need this courses were to revive the love which never disappeared.